TOMPKINS, William Henry

Harry Tompkins was the son of Mr and Mrs J. Tompkins of 49 Parkes Street, Brierley Hill and was a member of the Brockmoor Wesleyan Church. He enlisted in the original Territorial Company of the South Staffords on the outbreak of war. This became 1/5th Battalion in the 46th (North Midland) Division which went to the Western Front in March 1915. They fought at the Hohenzollern Redoubt in October and on the Somme in 1915 held the extreme left of the British line. They provided the diversionary attack for the first day of the Battle on the 1st July but heavy losses left the South Staffords in secondary sectors of the front until 1917. In late June they went back to the line at Liévin to attack a confused target of buildings sheltering enemy machine gun posts. The attack on the night of the 28th June was too complex and survivors returned to their own line. Sergeant William Henry Tompkins was killed in action on the 29th June and his loss was recorded in a letter from Sgt Major Frank Howes to the family, saying he ‘was my dearest chum. We went to school together, grew up together and enlisted together.’ He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and on the Brierley Hill and Brierley Hill church Memorials.